AMD Radeon R7 M460 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Comparison

AMD Radeon R7 M460 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

The database records a single head-to-head benchmark between these two end-of-life graphics cards, and the result is unambiguous. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the AMD Radeon R7 M460 scores 6612 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti scores 5731 points. That is a 15.4% advantage for the AMD part, a decisive margin that places the two cards in different performance tiers despite their similar age and historical positioning. The AMD card also sits at the 38th percentile among all GPUs in the database, while the NVIDIA card sits at the 33rd percentile, confirming that the gap is not a statistical artifact but a consistent ranking difference.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only recorded benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, shows the AMD Radeon R7 M460 delivering 6612 points against 5731 points for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti. The delta of 15.4% in favor of AMD represents a substantial performance cushion in compute workloads. This OpenCL result exercises general-purpose GPU compute, including floating-point operations, memory bandwidth, and shader throughput, so the score reflects more than just rasterization ability.

Looking at the nearest rivals for each card reinforces the separation. The AMD Radeon R7 M460 is grouped with cards like the AMD Radeon HD 7730M (6581 points, 0.5% behind), the Intel UHD Graphics P750 (6554 points, 0.9% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1010 (6698 points, 1.3% ahead). Its closest competitor in the database, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M, trails by 1.5% with 6513 points. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti, meanwhile, sits near the AMD Radeon HD 8790M (5691 points, 0.7% behind) and the Intel Iris Pro Graphics P6300 (5712 points, 0.3% behind). The AMD Radeon R7 M465 leads it by 1.9% with 5841 points. The gap between the two cards in this comparison, 15.4%, is far larger than the spread within either card's immediate rival group, which suggests they are not competing in the same performance class.

The AMD card's higher score is consistent with its architectural advantages in raw compute. It uses a 28 nm process with 1,550 million transistors on a 125 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 12.4 million per square millimeter. The NVIDIA card uses a 40 nm process with 1,170 million transistors on a 238 mm² die, giving it a density of just 4.9 million per square millimeter. The AMD part's GCN 3.0 architecture with 384 shading units, 24 texture mapping units, and 8 raster output units produces 786.4 GFLOPS of FP32 compute and 24.58 GTexel/s of texture fill. The NVIDIA Fermi 2.0 part has 192 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 24 ROPs, yielding 691.2 GFLOPS and 28.80 GTexel/s. The AMD card's FP32 output is 13.8% higher, which aligns closely with its benchmark lead.

Memory configuration also favors the AMD card in capacity but not in bandwidth. The R7 M460 carries 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 64-bit bus, delivering 36.00 GB/s. The GTX 550 Ti has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 98.50 GB/s. The NVIDIA card's bandwidth is 2.7 times higher, yet it still loses the compute benchmark by 15.4%. This suggests the OpenCL workload is more sensitive to shader throughput and clock behavior than to raw memory bandwidth. The AMD card boosts to 1024 MHz, while the NVIDIA card's base and boost clocks are not recorded in the database, so clock comparisons cannot be made directly.

The Verdict

The benchmark data clearly favors the AMD Radeon R7 M460 for any workload that relies on OpenCL compute. Its 6612 score against 5731 for the GTX 550 Ti, a 15.4% advantage, places it in a higher percentile bracket (38th versus 33rd). The AMD card also offers twice the memory capacity (2 GB versus 1024 MB), which can matter for larger data sets in compute tasks, even though its bandwidth is lower.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti does retain advantages in memory bandwidth (98.50 GB/s versus 36.00 GB/s) and texture fill rate (28.80 GTexel/s versus 24.58 GTexel/s), but these strengths do not translate into a benchmark win. The GTX 550 Ti also has a higher pixel rate at 7.200 GPixel/s versus 8.192 GPixel/s for the AMD card, so the AMD part actually wins that metric too.

For a user selecting between these two based solely on the recorded data, the AMD Radeon R7 M460 is the stronger choice for compute performance. The NVIDIA card's only recorded advantages are in memory bandwidth and texture throughput, neither of which produced a winning score in the available benchmark.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon R7 M460 wins the only recorded benchmark, and it also wins on several specification metrics. It has more shading units (384 versus 192), a higher FP32 compute rate (786.4 GFLOPS versus 691.2 GFLOPS), more memory capacity (2 GB versus 1024 MB), a higher pixel rate (8.192 GPixel/s versus 7.200 GPixel/s), a smaller die (125 mm² versus 238 mm²), and a denser transistor layout (12.4M per mm² versus 4.9M per mm²). Its process node is newer at 28 nm versus 40 nm, and it supports Vulkan 1.2.170, which the NVIDIA card does not list.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti wins on memory bandwidth (98.50 GB/s versus 36.00 GB/s), texture fill rate (28.80 GTexel/s versus 24.58 GTexel/s), and bus width (192-bit versus 64-bit). It also has more ROPs (24 versus 8) and more TMUs (32 versus 24). Its PCIe interface is wider at x16 versus x8, though it uses the older PCIe 2.0 standard. The GTX 550 Ti has a dual-slot cooler and a 6-pin power connector, while the AMD card's power requirements are not recorded.

FAQ

Q: Which card performs better in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M460 scores 6612 points, which is 15.4% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti's 5731 points.

Q: How does the memory bandwidth of the two cards compare?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti has 98.50 GB/s of bandwidth on a 192-bit bus, while the AMD Radeon R7 M460 has 36.00 GB/s on a 64-bit bus.

Q: Which card has more shading units?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M460 has 384 shading units, double the 192 shading units on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

Q: What is the FP32 compute output for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M460 delivers 786.4 GFLOPS, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti delivers 691.2 GFLOPS.

Q: Do both cards support the same graphics APIs?

A: Both support DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.6, but the AMD card supports Vulkan 1.2.170, while the NVIDIA card does not list Vulkan support.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 M460 has 2 GB of GDDR5, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti has 1024 MB of GDDR5.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and foundry processes. The AMD Radeon R7 M460 is built on GCN 3.0 architecture using the Meso chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti uses Fermi 2.0 architecture with the GF116 chip, also fabricated at TSMC but on a 40 nm process. The newer process node allows the AMD chip to pack 1,550 million transistors into a 125 mm² die, while the NVIDIA chip uses 1,170 million transistors across a 238 mm² die. This translates to a transistor density of 12.4 million per square millimeter for AMD versus 4.9 million for NVIDIA.

The AMD card's GCN 3.0 architecture uses 384 shading units organized into a design that also includes 24 TMUs and 8 ROPs. The NVIDIA Fermi 2.0 design uses 192 shading units with 32 TMUs and 24 ROPs. The AMD card has a higher pixel rate at 8.192 GPixel/s, while the NVIDIA card has a higher texture rate at 28.80 GTexel/s. The AMD card's FP32 output of 786.4 GFLOPS exceeds the NVIDIA card's 691.2 GFLOPS, and the AMD card also lists FP16 at 786.4 GFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, while the NVIDIA card does not record FP16 capability.

Memory architecture differs substantially. The AMD card uses a 64-bit bus with 2 GB of GDDR5 and 36.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the NVIDIA card uses a 192-bit bus with 1024 MB of GDDR5 and 98.50 GB/s bandwidth. The AMD card's memory clock is listed at 1125 MHz with 4.5 Gbps effective, while the NVIDIA card's memory clock is 1026 MHz with 4.1 Gbps effective. The bus interface also differs: the AMD card uses PCIe 3.0 x8, while the NVIDIA card uses PCIe 2.0 x16.

Specification Differences

The AMD Radeon R7 M460 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti differ across nearly every recorded specification. The AMD card uses a 28 nm process, the NVIDIA card a 40 nm process. Transistor counts are 1,550 million versus 1,170 million. Die sizes are 125 mm² versus 238 mm². Transistor density is 12.4 million per square millimeter versus 4.9 million.

The AMD card has no recorded TDP, slot width, power connectors, or suggested PSU. The NVIDIA card has a TDP of 116 W, a dual-slot cooler, a single 6-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 300 W. The NVIDIA card is 210 mm long (8.3 inches), while the AMD card's dimensions are not recorded. The NVIDIA card has display outputs of 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a, while the AMD card's display outputs are not listed.

The AMD card's base clock is 730 MHz with a boost of 1024 MHz, while the NVIDIA card has no base or boost clock recorded. Memory clocks are 1125 MHz (4.5 Gbps effective) for AMD and 1026 MHz (4.1 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA. The AMD card supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA card supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, with no Vulkan support listed. The AMD card's bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x8, while the NVIDIA card uses PCIe 2.0 x16. Release dates are May 14, 2016 for the AMD card and March 14, 2011 for the NVIDIA card.